Story and Photo Submission Guidelines for Carolina Currents

Thank you for your interest in Carolina Currents magazine. Before submitting your story ideas or manuscripts, the best thing you can do is read back issues or our online edition in order to become familiar with our style.

Readership: Carolina Currents is devoted to boating and waterfront enthusiasts living in North and South Carolina and adjoining regions. As the mid-point between the New England and Florida cruising grounds, we also enjoy many transient readers passing through our area each year.

Publication Description: Carolina Currents reflects the lifestyle of boaters. The content is informative and friendly, with a mix of personal observations and humor. We like profiles of unusual and noteworthy people along the waterways and places to visit, things to see and do, tips and hints. We rarely use freelance fiction.

Standing Features

* Current Destination - Destination pieces describing interesting places for boating trips within our coverage area or nearby waters. Pieces should include detailed descriptions of anchorages, marinas and other pertinent marine services in the area covered. Must include photos and/or other illustrations. 800-1,800 words, including any sidebars. Submissions encouraged.

* The Sailor's Life - Humorous or poignant essays looking at the boating experience and lifestyle. 800-1200 words. Send 'em in.

* Portal to the Past - A look at the early coastal settlers, ports, shipwrecks, naval battles, fishing industries, storms, boats, boat builders, pirates and other significant people, events and places of the historic Carolina coasts. 800-1,500 words, including any sidebars. Submissions welcomed.

* Casting About - This column explores fishing opportunities in the Carolinas. Tell about the one that got away - or the one you reeled in. Reveal your favorite fishing hole or reflect on a fun fishing trip aboard your boat in our coverage area. Describe techniques you've had success using while fishing off your boat. 250-1,000 words. Submissions with photos encouraged.

* ecoBoating - Stories about ecological issues affecting the coasts and lakes where our readers use their boats. Also tips on more environmentally friendly boating practices. 250-1,500 words. Submissions with illustrations encouraged.

* Cruising Through - A profile of cruisers passing through the Carolinas and their boat. Where have they been? Where are they going? Describe their boat. What modifications have they made to their vessel? 250-1,000 words. Stories with photos welcomed.

* Currently Aweigh - Brief reports from North and South Carolina or Georgia boaters who are traveling out-of-state. Where are they now and what are they doing? Can be written in the form of a succinct letter home. 100-250 words.

* Around the Marks - Tips on boat racing and profiles of successful racers from the Carolinas or Georgia. 200-800 words. Submissions encouraged.

* Regatta Roundup - Previews of upcoming regattas in the Carolinas or Georgia, and some concise results from recent regattas or significant results from Carolina or Georgia racers racing outside of the area. Action photos welcomed. We encourage submissions from regatta organizers or participants.

* Club Corner - Listing of upcoming events and recent news submitted by sailing, yachting, paddling, rowing, fishing and other boating-related clubs within our coverage area. Submissions encouraged from clubs. We don't normally pay for these, as they are run as a public service to promote club activities.

* Current Events - Listing of nautical events and community festivals along the coast. A sidebar highlights major upcoming events. Submit items using our online form.

* Off the Shelf - Reviews of books, albums and movies of interest to boaters. Submissions accepted. 50-200 words. Include title, author/artist name, year published/released, publisher name. Usually staff generated.

* Yak Talk - A look at paddling opportunities in the Carolinas. 100-800 words. Submissions encouraged.

* Boat Biz Briefs - Brief descriptions of new businesses, significant changes at existing businesses and new product or service offerings. Most often drawn from news releases.

* Ditty Bag - Detailed how-to briefs and features on boat maintenance, repair and improvement projects. After reading a technical article, the reader should have enough information to enable him or her to act. Advantages, disadvantages and potential pitfalls of the project should be presented. Include photos and/or illustrations. 50-word tips to 1,500-word features. Submissions welcome.

* The Nauti Kids Page - General boating pieces written by and for young boaters (17 and under) about their life on boats and boating. 50-500 words. Submissions encouraged.

Submission Details:

Carolina Currents welcomes submissions of photographic, art and written material for possible publication. We seek quality materials with a fresh angle on life afloat. In addition to the features described above, we regularly run larger feature stories of interest to our readership. Submit finished manuscript or a detailed query.

All unsolicited manuscripts are submitted on speculation. We print the best and most appropriate material to meet the needs and expectations of our readers. Stories sent with illustrations and electronically have a definite advantage over those submitted without photos or as hard copy sent via snail mail.

Your submission may not be accepted if we may have similar stories already, a backlog of features, or have already covered the topic in a recent issue. Don't be discouraged; your piece might be perfect for a different publication. Please be correct, concise, clear and colorful. We are happy to work with new writers who have boating experiences or insights of interest to our readers.

We generally follow AP style. Minimize formatting of text, as most of it will be lost in translation between software programs. Editor's pet peeves: Do not double-space after sentences or between paragraphs. We just have to delete the extra spaces, and that is very annoying. Do not embed images or other graphics in the text. Always remember: simpler is better.

We prefer text submissions via e-mail to Carolina_Currents@yahoo.com. Include the file as an attached text or Word file and paste it in the e-mail body. Please include a short biography - no more than 50 words or so. You might include information such as previous publications (if any), type/name of boat, homeport, boating experience, etc. We'd also like a photo of you for our contributor's page.

We Pay Money:

Like any publication, we don't pay for press releases, business news, letters, regatta result listings, Club Corner briefs or event listings.

As a new, small, regional publication, we do not yet have a large budget for freelance work, but we hope that will change as we grow. We pay 10 cents per word for the text we print and $50 for cover photos; payments for other photos are as negotiated. Higher fees may be negotiated with regular contributors. We normally pay for assigned stories upon completion and freelance submissions upon publication. We do not pay for press releases, letters, regatta result listings, Picture This submissions, Club Corner briefs or event listings. Higher fees may be negotiated with regular contributors. We do not normally pay writers' expenses unless negotiated prior to the assignment.

Unless you specify otherwise, we assume first North American Publishing Rights in both print and digital versions of the Carolina Currents. We will consider stories that have already been published elsewhere if they have not appeared in our readership area recently.

We acknowledge receipt of all manuscripts, but if you don't hear from us within a few weeks, please feel free to call or write to check on the status of your submission and make sure we received it.

If we edit your story to fit in our print edition, we may still be able to use the cut portions as well as additional photos on our website. No additional pay can be offered for the web content at this time.

E-mail submissions are preferred. If submitting materials via mail, include a SASE if you want them returned. Address to:

Carolina Currents Editor
P.O. Box 1090
Oriental NC 28571

Photo Specifications

Photos must be sharply focused high-resolution digital photos to be usable for print reproduction. 4.2 to 6.2 megapixel cameras are generally up to the task: 900 x 1500 pixels is the minimum size that works for us. That image can be printed (at 300 dpi) as a 3x5-inch photo. To run an image as large as a 5x7, it needs to be 1500 x 2100 pixels.

A full-page image is 2600 x 3400 pixels, often running 10 megabytes or more in size. If you give us a very small image, it limits our page layout capability. So larger images are better. Color is preferred for most stories, but black and white will be considered.